Ferris, Samuel
John M. McDonald interview — 1845-10-18
Samuel Ferris recounts how his father, Thomas Ferris, went off to war when he saw the British fleet approaching Throggs Neck on October 12, 1776. At the time, Thomas was presumably residing on the homestead of his parents, James Ferris and Charity Thomas Ferris, near Throggs Neck in present-day Bronx County. One of Thomas’s younger sisters successfully pleaded to go with her brother when he left, but was later sent back home.
Manuscript page facsimiles
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Transcription
- Hufeland Index Page 212 -
October 18th Samuel Ferris of North Castle: “My father was at breakfast with the family when they first saw the fleet on the morning of October 12th 1776, and instantly packing up a few articles of dress and taking his musquet and arms left home and returned not till the end of the war. His sister, a little girl much attached to her oldest brother cried and insisted upon going with him. Her distress and entreaties were so great that they let her go but she was afterwards sent back. When he crossed the bridge at West Chester some of the British vessels were near and seeing an armed man running towards the American camp fired on him.